1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a merchandise item protection apparatus having a housing, an alarm transducer received in the housing, and a device for securing the housing to a merchandise item or merchandise package to be protected, the housing comprising a passthrough opening in order to hang a protected merchandise item or merchandise package on a merchandise presenter.
2. Description of the Related Art
Merchandise item protection apparatuses of this kind, also called “tags,” are used in many stores to protect merchandise items from theft. The theft protection apparatuses possess an alarm transducer, for example based on an oscillator circuit, a transponder, or the like, and are attached to the merchandise item (or its packaging) that is to be protected in a manner that makes unauthorized removal of the merchandise item by customers impossible or at least considerably complicates it.
A merchandise item protection apparatus of the kind cited above is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,437,172. This merchandise item protection apparatus possesses a plate-shaped basic body having a hook-shaped hanger, on which an alarm transducer is mounted. Also provided is a device for mounting a pair of eyeglasses on the merchandise item protection apparatus. Concretely, attachment of the glasses is accomplished by way of a narrow plastic strip that is placed around the bridge of the eyeglasses and is inserted with its two ends into a slot of the basic body, and in the inserted position can be locked by means of a peg on the attachment device.
Theft protection apparatuses that possess a housing and are attached to the textile merchandise items by way of a pin mounted on the housing, which is stuck through the textile material and is secured by a counterelement, are known for the protection of textile merchandise items, for example from U.S. Pat. No. 4,987,754.
For the protection of merchandise items that are sold in blister packs, for example headphones or wearable hands-free devices for mobile telephones, the protection apparatuses used are principally in the form of stick-on labels. This type of protection has a number of disadvantages, however. In the case of small products, for example, a thief can open the blister pack relatively unobtrusively and remove the merchandise item from it. A further problem is that the properties of the oscillator circuit or transponder transmission coil printed onto the label change in response to pressure or even in the vicinity of metal, so that they are not suitable for all products and also can be manipulated relatively easily.
It is therefore the object of the invention to describe a merchandise item protection apparatus of the kind cited initially that is suitable for protecting electronic products in blister packs.